10 Richest CEO Exit Packages of All Time

Here are some benchmarks for the next time you're negotiating with a prospective employer: the most attractive severance settlements in history. (One warning: 9 out of 10 record holders are either bald or gray.)

Jack Welch, GE, $417 Million.

Jack Welch, GE, $417 Million.

Why do companies give such enormous amounts of money to a CEO who's leaving? Severance academics will tell you that with such a safety net written into a contract in advance, a company chief can make bolder decisions that benefit stockholders, even if they're against his own personal interest. This is what happened in 2007 when Jim Kilts of Gillette engineered the acquisition of his company by Proctor & Gamble for $57 billion, even though it meant he'd be without a job. Upon his exit, Kilts received a severance package of $165 million, not enough to crack the top ten, but still enough to keep himself in razor blades for generations.

So who had the best exit line of credit ever? That honor goes to Jack Welch, whose severance package set the bar both in cash value and in added perks. Welch's deal is now the benchmark that all superstar CEOs try to exceed in that honeymoon phase when a desperate board is begging them to take over their company. In addition to stock and pension, Welch got free use of an $80,000 a month Manhattan apartment and all his restaurant bills paid for, as well as courtside seats at Yankees, Red Sox, and Knicks games, and prime seating at both the French and US Opens.

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil, $321 Million.

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil, $321 Million.

Lee Raymond worked at Exxon for more than 40 years, during which time he engineered a lucrative merger with Mobil Oil. The resulting company felt justified in awarding Raymond such a handsome goodbye, since during his 12 years as CEO ExxonMobil stock went up 500%. Raymond, clearly an experienced negotiator, did add certain touches of his own to the standard severance deal, including one that will be hard for other CEOs to reproduce: he continues to be paid for his services consulting with Arab heads of state.